Ok, I need to preface this post with some sort of disclaimer. I will get around to elaborating on a disclaimer in another post and just link to it as several of my posts will likely require it :) but here I go.... First off, I want to say that I think Community Server is awesome. I'm not going to explain why I think Community Server is awesome (CommunityServer.org explains this in depth), However, I got a few big hang-ups with Community Server. My biggest complaint is the lack of real documentation on Community Server. I have seen several posts regarding this lack of documentation on their forums. The responses I have seen regarding their lack of documentation encourages developers to:
- Use the forums on CommunityServer.org
- Read the blogs of their MVPs.
- Access Community Server's online documentation
- Visit the developer Wiki.
- Direclty review the code in the SDK
Well, anyone that believes the way to master an architecture and API is to scavenge around forums and blog posts is off their rocker. Not that some of the resources and not helpful (and greatly appreciated!). There are some great using Community Server and they constantly post valuable information on the forums and on their personal blogs. However, there is not a complete, concise, and up date collection of material regarding community server available.
Community Server's online documentation contains almost nothing for developers. It is geared toward administration and the developer wiki is completely useless, outdated, and incomplete..
While I understand that providing documentation would require resources (time and money) on their part, I believe this lack of documentation is really holding them back. I had the product downloaded, installed, and was able to administer it with ease, however, when I came time to customize it, I almost walked away from Community Server completely because of the lack of documentation. With some appropriate documentation the resources I and other developers have to spend getting up to speed with community server could be minimized to a fraction of what it requires today.
Lastly, how about the simplest of API documentation? If it is available, I have not stumbled upon it. Tonight I went ahead and downloaded the latest SandCastle CTP and generated the API for Community Server Components Namespace. It can be downloaded from my downloads page.